School Experiences of Children of Prisoners: Strengthening Support in Schools in England and Wales

Abstract

Parental imprisonment affects a substantial amount of children (SCIE 2008; DCSF 2007). In England and Wales, it has been estimated that approximately 200,000 children had a parent in prison in 2009 (Williams et al. 2012) whilst in the European Union, approximately 2.1 million children will have a parent in prison on any one day (COPE 2017). Children who experience parental imprisonment are more likely to have poorer outcomes than any other group of children. Schools have been identified as having a key role to play in supporting this group of vulnerable children and this chapter outlines some of the issues that arise around school support and how support can be strengthened.